The mother of a 13-year-old boy fatally shot when police say he tried to rob a couple said she is in shock that her son is dead -- and even more so at the circumstances surrounding his death.

"I don't want it put out like he was a bad person or a mean person, because he wasn't," Latonya Walker, 38, said Tuesday. "This is not him, not who he was. Anybody that knew Ja'Quares knows that."

Birmingham police said Ja'Quares Cortez Walker was in a car that pulled into the parking lot of the gated Skyview Condominiums at 407 Skyview Drive shortly after 11 p.m. Friday. The condo is off Robert Jemison Drive in southwest Birmingham.

Wearing a gray shirt around his face like a bandana and armed with a loaded and cocked pistol, authorities said Ja'Quares approached a black Lexus SUV with a couple inside and ordered the driver out. The driver pulled a gun and shot Ja'Quares multiple times.

The driver's name has not been released.

Police officials on Tuesday said the case remains under investigation. Once their probe is complete, they will present their findings to the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office to determine whether charges will be filed.

District Attorney Brandon Falls said he has been told that police will present the case to him no later than Thursday.

Police released no information on the Friday incident until late Monday, until then saying only that an "unclassified shooting death" had occurred.

Police Chief A.C. Roper on Tuesday said police are still investigating.

"We questioned all the people we needed to question in relation to the incident," he said.

Police still are looking for the people who were accompanying Ja'Quares on Friday night, "but no one has been arrested," said Sgt. Johnny Williams Jr., spokesman for the Birmingham Police Department.

The shooter, Williams said, talked to investigators at the scene, and he voluntarily went to the Birmingham Police headquarters.

Latonya Walker said her son, who school officials confirmed was the quarterback on the football team at Martha Gaskins Middle School, was home about 9 p.m. Friday. She said he was visiting with two of his friends and one of his brothers in the front yard of the east Birmingham home where Ja'Quares lived with his parents, two brothers and a sister.

A red Chevrolet Trail Blazer pulled up to the group of young men. Latonya Walker said she yelled out to her son and asked who was in the car. He replied that it was one of his friends and the friend's uncle, and then got in the vehicle with them.

"Mom, we're just going to the store, and we'll be right back," his mother recalled him saying. It wasn't long, she said, before she began to worry. She said she called everyone she could think of, but had no success finding her son. She said he did not have a cellphone.

"It's not like him to go anywhere and not tell me," she said.

After several hours, Latonya Walker said she called Birmingham police and reported her son missing. She said she paced the house throughout the night, and still no word came.

"It was a real rough day," she said. "I knew something wasn't right."

It wasn't until about 3:30 p.m. Saturday, she said, that a Birmingham police detective called her and asked her if she had reported her son missing.

When she said yes, he asked her to meet him and look at a photo of a youth shot to death the previous night.

Police have said they were not able to identify Ja'Quares until Saturday.

Latonya Walker said the account of her son's death doesn't make sense to her. "He got fussed at like all kids do, but he was a real respectful child," she said. "Every day was a happy day for us."

She said she just wants to know the truth.

"Even if he did this, someone had to put him up to it. Why else would 16- and 17-year-olds want to hang out with a 13-year-old boy?" she said. "It's not the way he was raised."

She said her heart is heavy, and she's still not sure everything has hit her yet.

"It's like he's still here, and I feel him holding me up," she said. "All I can do is pray, and know God was ready to take his angel."

Chances are the driver was black too; more crime is black-on-black than black-on-white.
Coulter and Jackson are right, all law-abiding black men in this country should be armed and trained and carry. Oh, sisters too.

>”I don’t want it put out like he was a bad person or a mean person, because he wasn’t,”<
Of course he wasn’t. Good kids go around with loaded guns trying to rob people all the time. Come on people! It’s 2012! Get wit da program!

Sadly, we are not permitted to talk about the answer without being labeled racist, or elite, or culturally insensitive. Until society can accept the problem and talk about it openly, nothing will be solved. Unfortunately, the people in this culture breed faster than they can be killed.

In another thread it had her “poem” that she had posted on Facebook. There was a line in there that said “I never told you I cared”. Here was my rant in an imaginary letter to the “mom”. (Mom is in quotes as she is just a breeder, and not a mom.)

***********************************************

I never told you I cared

Dear Mom:

Theres your problem right there bit&$. Maybe if you told your SON that you cared he would still be alive. Maybe if you SHOWED your son that you cared he wouldnt have gone off gang-banging. (99% sure that is the case without reading anything about it).

What sort of mother doesnt tell her son that she cares!!?? Is it too tough to play the parent when he comes home with bad grades? Ignore it - it is too tough. I dont care. Hes only 7th grade and the grades dont matter anyway.

He leaves for the night at 9 pm and you dont wonder about him until the police call the next afternoon? Oh thats right - you dont care.

Maybe if you, his momma, had shown you cared about your boy (yes, 13 should still be considered a boy in this day and age), he would still be alive. And more importantly, he would have felt like he mattered, that he was important. Instead he had to try to find love and recognition in a gang.

The culture that names their children such as this IS what caused him to be a thug. Also, his job prospects are severely limited by his name alone, right or wrong, which means he was likely to be a thieving thug.

That poor woman. How sad to have your son derail like this and end up dead. She is right that the older members of her son’s gang planned out the car jacking crime and waited in the wings. They do this because the criminal justice system goes easy on young teens like her son. It could have been a gang initation thing.

I fully understand the man killing the one with the gun pointed at him. At the same time, when you have to kill someone, even justifiably, it is no picnic. The Black gang racist culture has to stop.

Thanks. I had no idea. I copied it as it was. I looked at my keyboard and thought he meant R, but hit the T key by mistake.

Wow! There is no way the mom did not know what her kids and their friends were all about. If that’s the deceased son standing next to her in photos...he is much taller than she is. Does not look like an average 13 year old!

182
posted on 05/03/2012 12:19:06 PM PDT
by toldyou
(Even if the voices aren't real they have some pretty good ideas.)

She said he was visiting with two of his friends and one of his brothers in the front yard of the east Birmingham home where Ja’Quares lived with his parents, two brothers and a sister.
His Dad must be a mute as he has not opined in the matter of the fruit of his loins straying from the straight and narrow path of a law-abiding citizen.
________________________

Good and decent kids from decent families sometimes go bad. They spend some time with a bad crowd and sometimes pull away and other times dont. He made a poor choice and ended up dead with the push of local thugs. His family must be devistated.

Thugdom is celebrated and I can show you a couple of dozen pictures of white kids from good middle class families who a have had equally stupid pictures on FB.

191
posted on 05/03/2012 1:06:56 PM PDT
by Chickensoup
(In the 20th century 200 million people were killed by their own governments.)

Okay, maybe it is his sister, since mom has a photo apparently taken around the same time that says “mama kidz”. Nice if that is her younger son giving the finger. She simply cannot claim that she had no idea what was going on. Looking at the pictures of her other children including one named Jasmine, you can plainly see they all have the gang mentality. There are times when I will give the parents a break because sometimes kids do bad things no matter how they are raised. But I will not give this mother a break. She knew exactly what her kids were into.

I was looking at the numbers recently, and we are approaching 1 in 20 citizens with a ccw both here in Ga and in Fl. I have to think AL would be similar. And in ga you don’t have to have a ccw to carry in your car, it is considered an extension of your domicile.

Police say he was in a car that pulled into the parking lot of the complex shortly after 11 p.m. Police say he wore a shirt around his face like a bandanna, approached a vehicle with a gun and ordered the driver out. Authorities say the driver pulled a gun and shot Ja’Quares.

Believe me when I tell you that there are another 2 or 3 that are carrying without the permit. I and several of my friends believe that the 2A is our permit. The authorities do not have to give me “permission” to protect myself, my family, and my property.

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